A Simple Man
by NydusTemplar
Summary: First Entry, I can't quite get the hang of presentation. Plz R&R and help me make it look more tidy.


As the new dawn arose over the ashen world of Char, a simple man stood over looking the horizon of a foreign world. The view of the fresh day's light washed over the scenery like a flood of heat over the surface of a star. The simple man stood in awe of such a beautiful sight in wake of the carnage below him, the alien brood's battleground. The aliens were known as the Zerg, their broods swept across the universe bring death and destruction with them. The Confederacy wanted only one thing done about the Brood, total annihilation. The simple man, known as Commander Tyronne Lane, lead his brave band of marines, known as the RoughRiders, into a Zerg base on Char. The chaotic guts of the Zerg decorated the ground of the Zerg base, creating a blanket of dismembered aliens, as well as dead and decaying creep. The organic covering over the very crust of the planet seemed to fade back toward the demolished buildings which where once organic compounds, which housed and healed the very essence of the Zerg. Tyronne remembered the battle well, even though it was days past. The Zerglings surged forward like a tide of flesh with a single goal in mind, the destruction of the Confederate forces. The galloping horrors quickly advanced toward the RoughRiders, but where leveled by a volley of gunfire from their gauss rifles. The next group, Hydralisks, masters of the flying spines, launched deadly missiles toward the brave group of warriors. Moving swiftly and gracefully, Tyronne kissed the deck and avoided the dangerous projectiles. More fire chattered from the guns as the Zerg began to form piles of dead bodies. More and more Zerg streamed forth and laid down their lives to attack the terran invaders. With immaculate ease, Tyronne swept across the battlefield with his gauss rifle and laid down a number of Zerglings. The metal spikes, which issue forth from the cannon like a swarm of honey bees, tore through the vile flesh of the evil Zerg underlings. After laying waste to the vast ground army of the Zerg, Rough Riders then turned their attention to the skies above. Casting their sights on the slowly hovering Overlords, RoughRiders rock 'n rolled on those flying bastards to wipe their kind from the face of the planet. As the Overlords plummeted to their doom, the terran marines marched forward, demolishing buildings as they went. Once it was all said and done, the Zerg where minus a base and the RoughRiders where up a win.  
This region had been cleared of all Zerg presence, but the Protoss where another matter. Their zealots have been giving no end of trouble to the Terran forces in this area. Although the Zerg in this region where their prime target, the Protoss seem to be worried that the Terran forces will attempt to block them from eradicating the Zerg forces. Although they are invisible to scanners and weapon systems, a good marine can spot an observer silently watching every move he or she makes. Tyronne can see one now, its form unmoving in the air, tempting him to blow it out of the sky. Unfortunately, the Confederacy wanted to keep the strange peace that seemed to have formed between the two races. Therefore, he continued to watch it slowly spin, gathering precious intelligence on the RoughRider's position and the condition of the Zerg outpost. After a brief period, the observer sped off to the north of this planet, toward a known Protoss base to report back it's findings. Eventually, orders are received to move out toward the very base where the Observer fled.  
The march toward the base is uneventful, as the Third Aerospace Wing has already cleared the area ahead and behind their position. Apparently, from the data burst download their orders came on, the Third Aerospace Wing had already docked and made camp at the Protoss base. The oddity of marching toward a Protoss base and seeing the zealots and dragoons not do so much as twitch in our general direction was seemingly incomprehensible to the lieutenant commander of RoughRiders. The photon cannons did not raise and bring death upon their position, the shimmer of the shields did not seem dangerous, and a scout-wraith patrol flew over head. It was amazing it its pure brilliance, the simplest of peace makes the most amazing of views. The base was heavily defended due to the fact that Zerg forces in this region where one of the strongest ever. As the group proceeded into the base, terran and protoss buildings mixed together to create a very interesting base which combined the two race's technology to create a powerful defensive matrix. The bunkers where manned by stalwart marines who where constantly vigilant, the photon cannons reinforced by zealots and dragoons. Archons floated majestically on the walls of the protoss base, encased and glowing with psionic energy. Tyronne marched up to the Terran starport, a mobile building with thrusters and guidance systems. The commander of the third Aerospace division, Marshall Jim Rayner and this flying fortress of a battlecruiser, the Hyperion, hovered above being repaired by a number of SCVs and crew members. They had run into heavy Zerg mutalisk and hydralisk forces on their way to attack the Zerg base in the region. The peace accordance was an odd one that consisted of both races agreeing to aid each other and allow repairs, but neither trusted one another entirely. So the joint bases where always heavily populated with both Protoss and Terran forces.  
There had been rumors flying about that the Confederacy disbanded with fall of Tarsonis to the Zerg. Supposedly, the Confederacy had been replaced by the Terran Empire now ruled by a revolutionary leader named Arcturus Mengsk. He and his rebels, the Sons of Korhal, rule the remaining Terran worlds with an iron fist and allow no more interfighting amongst Terrans. Even if it where all true, where so far out in the boonies, wiping out Zerg forces and trying to keep the Protoss allied, we wouldn't notice save for a different time stamp on the orders we receive. Although the bureaucrats behind the orders change, they always manage to keep the missions about the same, move in, hold this, defend that, and take this. It's all a bunch of crap, the last time they sent us orders for a little R & R was at least two standard years ago.  
Suddenly, a call came up from the look out points; some spider mines had detonated their payload on some advancing Zerg forces. More spider-mines launched themselves on a programmed suicide mission to destroy as many of the Zerg bastards as possible. This meant only one thing, the Zerg where coming, en masse. Burst static transmissions heralding the arrival of communications going up all over the defensive perimeter. Suddenly, the photon cannons extend toward the sky full length, a low hum emanating from the automated base defense. A burst of energy issued forth from the building, flying toward a target and totaling whatever it hit. Suddenly, an alarm claxon went off, a broadcast came over the speakers.  
"All Terran forces report to the defensive perimeter A.S.A.P., we are under attack by massive Zerg forces, move out." Tyronne raised his right hand and waved toward the nearest entrance,  
"Move it, move it, We've got a position to hold!" Running at full speed, RoughRiders made major headway to the defensive line. As they approached their position, a group of Zerglings had just finished with a bunker, tearing it open and digesting the soft Terran center. Lane and two others opened fire on the little freaks and splattered their insides all over the pavement; they wouldn't have the guts to do that again. More Zerglings tore through the defenses and Hydralisks released deadly spines toward the impressive fortifications of the Protoss base. Photon cannon continued to rain destruction upon the Zerg enemy as a massive Ultralisk tore through a group of bunkers with it's powerful and sharp Kaiser blades. The huge beast was incredibly powerful and as such is mostly an offensive weapon. Finally, the base defenses laid down the huge beast as a Zergling swarm slammed into the fortifications like a wave of ocean water against a bank of solid rock. Tyronne ordered into his headset the following message,  
"RoughRiders, hit your stimpacks now, we need medics on the front line." The button for the stimpack was placed on his armor control panel on his dominant arm. He slapped the switch and the powerful mixture of endorphins blurred his vision and synthetic adrenaline surged through his system and his vision sharpened back up. His reflexes increased and he began firing with pinpoint accuracy. A surge of rage rushed through him and he charged the Zerg beast, tearing through the damned little monsters. He stomped the thing down and held it in place with his boot, then he put his gauss rifle to his head and squeezed the trigger. It brains splattered all over the place as another of its cousins tackled Tyronne. A sharp elbow to the head followed by charged up deck to the face put the little bastard down for the count. Standing up, a medic rushed over and began healing him. Waving the tissue sealer, the damage caused by the stimpack was eliminated while its effects remained. A massive Ultralisk sprinted toward their position as the medic pulled out an optic flare and charged it from her arm. She pulled the pin and tossed it straight toward the huge alien spawn, it burst into a flash of light, blinding the behemoth monster. As it could no longer see, the base defenses found the helpless beast to be easy prey. From behind their position, a few Siege Tanks had deployed themselves on a hill and began their assault. They lobbed explosive shells of death at the horde, mutilating everything they touched. The massive sound vibrations emitting from the one and twenty millimeter cannon shook the very ground as it pounded the Zerg beasts. The bodies began to pile up as the death toll increased in size. Mutalisks attempted to climb over the defensive wall, but where quickly shot out of the sky by wraiths and scouts, launching missiles toward their targets with deadly accuracy. An invisible being moved past Tyronne, making it's way stealthily toward the front lines. Tyronne had heard of protoss troops, which could cloak indefinitely if need be, but he had never seen any. This was apparently one of them, they where called Dark Templars. He activated his allied view which allowed him to view all troops that where allied as a wire frame on his helmet monitor. The wire frame of the Dark Templar moved with a grace and ease that could only developed by years of accumulated combat experience. With a single swipe of this arm-mounted warp blade, the cloaked Templar sliced a zergling in half as if it where butter. Next, he slashed a wounded Hydralisk and decapitated it. More of his brethren joined in the battle, hacking and chopping their way through the Zerg horde, spilling the blood of the vile beasts. Suddenly, an overlord, the flying masters of the horde and detectors, spotted the cloaked warriors and relayed his findings to the attacking force, a zergling spun on its hind legs and slashed at the dark templar, its claw only finding shields to halt it. With the final death of that zergling, the Dark Templars returned to the safety and solace of the bases for healing and shield recharging. The last of the zerg forces through themselves against the defenses, but failed to accomplish their goal.  
Totaling the losses and looking over the damage of the base, the Terran-Protoss base breathed a collective sigh of relief. Despite their losses, the Zerg horde was completely and utterly destroyed, and they managed to rekindle the light of victory one last time. Unfortunately, the people knew the battle was far from over; the Zerg would be back, and in greater numbers. A few observers lifted off the ground and activated their cloaking devices, speeding off to the south toward the source of the zerg forces, another base. The forces had two options, attack the base, or abandon the outpost. Sadly, the base had to be abandoned, and soon. The zerg base was just too massive to eliminate, so the observers where to see when the next attack was coming. The SCVs, Probes, and other non-combat workers began packing up mobile base defenses. The protoss began warping buildings out and recalling pylons. The Command Center and all the other mobile buildings had to be lifted off and begin their voyage into space. Wraiths and Scouts increased their patrol routes and spread further from the outpost. Most of the men loaded into the Barracks or Command Center in order to protect it and to transit with it. Other troopers and civilians loaded into Terran Dropships and Protoss Shuttles, and even others loaded into Carriers and Battlecruisers. The mass exodus was a sight to see, air support flying about, patrolling the area and making sure that no Zerg scourge made kamikaze runs at the buildings. This had not been the first time such an event had taken place, indeed it was common now, as we could never hold much ground to the Zerg, we always fell back, always retreated just a little bit more. 


End file.
